1993年SectionII:ReadingComprehensionEachofthepassagesbelowisfollowedbysomequestions.Foreachquestiontherearefouranswersmarked[A],[B],[C],and[D].Readthepassagescarefullyandchoosetheanswertoeachofthequestions.ThenmarkyouranswerontheANSWERSHEETbyblackeningthecorrespondingletterinthebrackets.(30points)Text1Islanguage,likefood,abasichumanneedwithoutwhichachildatacriticalperiodoflifecanbestarvedanddamaged?JudgingfromthedrasticexperimentofFrederickIIinthethirteenthcentury,itmaybe.Hopingtodiscoverwhatlanguageachildwouldspeakifheheardnomothertongue,hetoldthenursestokeepsilent.Alltheinfantsdiedbeforethefirstyear.Butclearlytherewasmorethanlackoflanguagehere.Whatwasmissingwasgoodmothering.Withoutgoodmothering,inthefirstyearoflifeespecially,thecapacitytosurviveisseriouslyaffected.TodaynosuchseverelackexistsasthatorderedbyFrederick.Nevertheless,somechildrenarestillbackwardinspeaking.Mostoftenthereasonforthisisthatthemotherisinsensitivetothesignalsoftheinfant,whosebrainisprogrammedtolearnlanguagerapidly.Ifthesesensitiveperiodsareneglected,theidealtimeforacquiringskillspassesandtheymightneverbelearnedsoeasilyagain.Abirdlearnstosingandtoflyrapidlyattherighttime,buttheprocessisslowandhardoncethecriticalstagehaspassed.Expertssuggestthatspeechstagesarereachedinafixedsequenceandataconstantage,buttherearecaseswherespeechhasstartedlateinachildwhoeventuallyturnsouttobeofhighIQ.Attwelveweeksababysmilesandmakesvowel-likesounds;attwelvemonthshecanspeaksimplewordsandunderstandsimplecommands;ateighteenmonthshehasavocabularyofthreetofiftywords.Atthreeheknowsabout1,000wordswhichhecanputintosentences,andatfourhislanguagediffersfromthatofhisparentsinstyleratherthangrammar.Recentevidencesuggeststhataninfantisbornwiththecapacitytospeak.Whatisspecialaboutman’sbrain,comparedwiththatofthemonkey,isthecomplexsystemwhichenablesachildtoconnectthesightandfeelof,say,atoy-bearwiththesoundpattern“toy-bear.”Andevenmoreincredibleistheyoungbrain’sabilitytopickoutanorderinlanguagefromthemixtureofsoundaroundhi...
